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Two unusual albino blue-winged kookaburra chicks found in Queensland, Australia

December 7, 2010 | 5:32
am

A pair of extremely unusual albino blue-winged kookaburra chicks have been found in Queensland, Australia, where they are being cared for at a wildlife hospital after apparently falling out of their nest in a storm.

The two birds, believed to be sisters about 6 weeks old, are the first known albino specimens of their species in Australia.

"Luckily, this farmer found and saved them; they're the real heroes, because probably within the next day they would be dead," Harry Kunz, founder of the Eagle's Nest Wildlife Hospital in Ravenshoe, Queensland, told Agence France-Presse. Their bright coloring would make them an easy target for predators in the wild.

The birds are reportedly in good health and have been hand-fed a diet of mice and chicken, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. Kunz said they will be taught how to hunt for their own food -- a typical diet for a blue-winged kookaburra includes insects, small reptiles and even small birds and mammals -- when they are old enough, but they'll never leave the Queensland sanctuary because life in the wild would be too dangerous for them.